189

REVIEWS.

ELEMENTARY ANATOMY.*

THER THERE are some to whom doubtless the title of a work which expresses, as the title of Mr. Mivart's book does, that it deals with elementary anatomy, will imagine that it treats only of that driest of all branches of science, human dissection. Such, however, will be but those whose examination of the book before us does not extend beyond the cover. To him who looks into its pages there will be opened up a glimpse such as he has seldom seen before; a grand view in outline, less or more, of the anatomy of the whole vertebrate sub-kingdom. We have said an outline, because to imagine anything more would have been to have had a poor conception of the limits of comparative anatomy. But assuredly the student-and he must be an advanced one-will find in this volume what he has never seen in a work addressed to students before: an admirable sketch of the anatomy of man contrasted in its several sections with the anatomy of the several typical forms-mammalian, avine, reptilian, batrachian, and piscine-from the higher to the lower of vertebrate living forms. And this too in no mere popular manner, but with a degree of minuteness and accuracy, and with a terseness and lucidity of style, which are not too often met with in works of this description. The book is intended as a companion to Huxley's admirable little manual of Physiology, which is published in the same series; and indeed we think that it is well worthy of, not superior to, the rank in which it is placed. Whether from the nature of its matter, its style, or the exceeding perfection of its illustrations, we know indeed of very few compeers; while from its being in point of fact an essentially new book, we were quite ready to accept those many imperfections which are 80 characteristic of any novel form. But indeed the faults of the book do not present themselves to our vision, unless it endeavours to accomplish too much, and its matter is too deep for the majority of students. On this score we fancy the critic can have little to say; for those who know aught of students, and of medical students in particular, are aware that they are of two distinct groups, almost without a connecting link: those who work, and those who don't. And from a long experience of these, we feel certain that the working student will hail Mr. Mivart's manual with the most

* "Lessons in Elementary Anatomy. By St. George Mivart, F.R.S., Lecturer on Comparative Anatomy at St. Mary's Hospital." London: Macmillan & Co., 1873.

pleasurable emotion; for it is a book which will give him in condensation, without the too frequent faults of dryness and imperfections of composition, an accurate and clear account of vertebrate comparative anatomy, such as he could only otherwise acquire by years of research, which he would not possibly have had the time to expend.

Besides, if our argument appears weak to some, we may urge the more weighty reason that knowledge of the subject on which Mr. Mivart writes has become, from having been the study of the specialist, one of the most important lines of everyday research. We say this seriously; and if the reader will look to the United States of America, to Germany, France, and even to Norway and Sweden, he will see how much attention is given in these various States to the study of comparative anatomy. If the English student differs from his compeers on the Continent, to his shame be it said; and this leads us to remark, en passant, that it is not so much the pupil as the examiner that is to blame; for in none of the medical boards, save those of a few universities, is the candidate for a medical diploma required to know anything whatever of zoology, while in many cases a crude and most unscientific knowledge of botany is particularly demanded.

Of the plan of Mr. Mivart's volume a few words may be said. The greater amount of matter is given to the consideration of the osseous structures, and we think with the author that this is right and proper, for the following reasons, which he thus expressly states: (1) The general resemblance borne by the skeleton to the external form. (2) The close connexion between the arrangement of the skeleton and that of the nervous ́system, muscles and vessels. (3) The relation borne by the skeleton of each animal to the actions which it performs. (4) The obvious utility of the skeleton in classification and the interpretation of affinity. (5) Parts of the skeleton or casts of such are all we possess of a vast number of animals formerly existing in the world, but now entirely extinct. After Mr. Mivart has dealt in a masterly manner with the skeleton of man and the several groups we have already mentioned, to an extent which covers nearly 300 of the 500 pages which compose the volume, he then proceeds to treat of the muscular organs, the nervous apparatus, and the circulatory, alimentary, and excretory systems. In these several chapters he deals as fully with the organs of one animal as another, and by an ample series of illustrations— over 400 woodcuts-gives examples of types and of those organs which are specially set forth in the volume. Indeed these illustrations are remarkably good, some of them being quite new, and many of them being rare even to the student of comparative anatomy.

We object but to the last passage of the volume. It is certainly questionable, and we do not see why it was introduced. Nothing short of a very long essay could attempt its proof, even to those who are from the first likely enough to accept the dictum. To other readers it seems out of place, as it is equally beyond satisfactory evidencing. We refer to the expression of opinion as to the totality of man's nature. But for this—indeed we may say notwithstanding this-we believe Mr. Mivart's volume to be the best book that could have been produced upon the subject on which it treats.

As

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF OZONE.*

S the writer of the present work has observed, a succinct account of all the results that have been arrived at in regard to ozone is required. But then the question comes, by whom is such a labour earnestly demanded ?—and in answer to this we certainly should think that the chemists, and not the general public, are the special audience to which such a volume as the present one ought to be addressed. Perhaps we may be wrong in supposing so, but we imagine that the subject has not been sufficiently worked out to establish its ends beyond all question; and that therefore it is wrong to introduce to the general public a series of problems, which, for all we know, may eventually be regarded somewhat in the same light as we are accustomed to view the earlier efforts of the chemical world as regards the function of oxygen. However, we confess that this conjecture may have nothing in the world to support it; and admitting the justification for publishing such a book as that which Dr. Fox has offered us, we are bound to confess at the outset that it is admirably got up. If we overlook certain peculiarities of the author-such, for instance, as his method of grouping the title of his work and the signature to the preface,

which is accomplished by the musical letters

and come to con

sider the labour which he has bestowed on the book, the excellent account he has given of most scientific researches conducted on the Continent and at home, the admirably convenient and enormously expensive side-notes which he has given, and finally the number of excellent charts and illustrations which he has appended to the volume, we are bound to say that the essay leaves very little to be desired. If we leave aside consideration of Dr. Fox's remarks concerning the observations of Homer on this subject, which we confess do not strike us as of much importance, and come to the subject of ozone itself, we think we shall do well. In this chapter the author enters upon an historical account of the earliest observations on the subject, and we think he very justly regards Schönbein as the first discoverer of this substance. He then passes on to the observations of Williamson on ozone; next he travels through the successive examinations made by a great host of English and Continental chemists, and he lays stress upon the investigations of the Irish philosopher Andrews, as being one of the most important of all the great series of researches that the subject of ozone has called forth. All these inquiries, he says, show that ozone is "simply a condensed or allotropic form of oxygen," which is simply correct, save that the word allotropic by no means involves the condensation of the substance to which it is adjectively conjoined. We do not think that antozone is as clearly established as Dr. Fox would have us believe; still we accept his statement, made on very good authority, that "it is regarded as a modification of oxygen, to which belongs the power of oxidising water and converting it into the peroxide of hydrogen, with the simultaneous development

* "Ozone and Antozone; their History and Nature. When, where, why, how, is Ozone observed in the Atmosphere?" Illustrated with engravings, &c. By Cornelius B. Fox, M.D. London: J. and A. Churchill, 1873.

of clouds-a feat which ozone is not able to accomplish, although it may be allowed to remain in contact with this fluid for weeks. Whilst ozone is insoluble in water, antozone is said to have a powerful affinity for it." In the chapter entitled "Does the atmosphere contain ozone ?" Dr. Fox enters upon a very full and fair discussion of the subject. In this he gives us his numerous authorities, showing where ozone is most exhibited and where it is least developed, with different reasons for its presence or absence given by those who have made the subject a special study. In this we are led very strongly to reject the testimony as to its absence from certain townsLyons for instance--because of the extreme improbability of such an important constituent of the atmosphere (if it is so) being not present in the atmospheric air of that city. We are inclined to think that far more numerous analyses than those on which Dr. Fox bases his views should be made before such a conclusion is openly expressed in public. And we have not the smallest doubt that minute observations will yet be made which will throw the author's statement-made upon authority of others—completely into the dark. Still, admitting the justification of the work, we cannot help confessing that the author has done well in most parts of the book. We must, however, call him to task for some of the conclusions which he would appear to hold, or at least to give a place to. And foremost of such is his quotation of that monstrous doctrine of Mr. Haviland, that geological structure has anything-save in the case of swamps and such like to do with special forms of disease. For example, he appears to accept that most absurd doctrine that heart disease and dropsy occur "wherever the prevailing sea-winds have uninterrupted access, as over a flat or elevated country, or up broad valleys." How Mr. Haviland's doctrine could ever have gained the least attention is only to be explained by the utter ignorance that medical men yet have of geology and everything relating to it. Anything more absurd than to attempt a classification of diseases according to the geology of a country it is difficult to conceive. It is hard to imagine any two countries more dissimilar geologically than Ireland and England, or more alike epidemically—with the one exception of typhus, or famine fever, which is easily explained by the former poverty of the inhabitants of Ireland. Dr. Fox gives several very good reasons why ozone should be observed, and we think his book is likely to increase the number of ozonometricians at present existing. In all that concerns methods of recording ozone his book is a veritable mine of wealth; more than half of it is devoted to this subject, and so far as we have seen, with clearness and comprehensiveness. Indeed, altogether we are much pleased with the volume; and leaving aside the question whether it should have been published, we feel bound to award the author our best praise for the manner in which he has discharged the task which he undertook.

GOOD

GEOLOGICAL STORIES.*

LOOD as was undeniably the former work by Mr. Taylor which we had to review in these pages, we are bound in all honesty to confess that the volume now before us is still better. Indeed we know of few who are so admirably adapted to the task of writing for the public alone as the author of the "Geological Stories." We, of course, do not consider this little book as in any way addressed to students of geology; but to those who have never opened a geological volume, who, even if they had the time, would never dream of taking up a geological text-book, the "Geological Stories" must undoubtedly appeal. They are popular in the extreme, and withal they have not the faults of popular treatises. Their author is too good a geologist for that. But they furnish a series of stories much in the vein that Professor Huxley adopted some years ago in many of his popular lectures. A series of stories constitute the chapters of the volume, and in this way the several formations are disposed of. Thus, there is the story of a piece of granite, a piece of slate, a piece of limestone, a piece of sandstone, a piece of coal, a piece of rock-salt, a piece of jet, a piece of Purbeck marble, a piece of chalk, a lump of clay, a piece of lignite, and finally the story of the crags, a boulder and a gravel pit. The volume which contains these several stories is amply and excellently illustrated, the cuts numbering nearly 200, whilst a number of plates, of most of which we heartily approve, are scattered through the volume. Each substance is made to tell its tale in the first person, and the humour of the author displays itself occasionally in a pleasant and telling manner. The illustrations are capitally printed, better far than is generally the case; some of them, too, are novel to most readers those of the foraminifera being especially so. Altogether we are well satisfied with the work, and we cordially trust our young friends will get it and read it: if they derive as much pleasure from its perusal as the writer has, we will vouch for their satisfaction.

HARVESTING ANTS AND TRAP-DOOR SPIDERS.†

T is not often we find a series of observations published now-a-days upon the habits of a particular animal. Nor indeed is it at all common to find, when such a series of studies are given to the public, that they at all justify the praise of the Natural History reviewer. But such can certainly not be said in the case of Mr. Moggridge's labours, for they are unquestionably most valuable, and have been most ably made and most creditably published. The illustrations to this book are, by themselves, of extreme value,

"Geological Stories. A Series of Autobiographies in Chronological Order." By J. E. Taylor, F.G.S. London: Hardwicke, 1873.

"Harvesting Ants and Trap-door Spiders. Notes and Observations on their Habits and Dwellings." By J. Traherne Moggridge, F.L.S. London: L. Reeve and Co., 1873.

VOL. XII.-NO. XLVII.